But some young people in the financial hub have begun calling for greater autonomy for the city, ranging from self-determination to independence, after months of pro-democracy protests in 2014 failed to lead to any concessions from Beijing.

On Wednesday, two of 70 newly elected legislators, 25-year-old Yau Wai-ching and 30-year-old Baggio Leung, pledged their allegiance to a “Hong Kong nation” and displayed a “Hong Kong is not China” banner while they took their oaths of office, which were later ruled as invalid by the legislature’s head clerk.

The official Xinhua news agency on Friday quoted an unnamed officer at the liaison office, Beijing’s symbol in Hong Kong, as calling their behavior “despicable”.